Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to associating attributes with network addresses, and more specifically to generating associations between network addresses and attributes that were not directly observed.
Background Information
Providers of compliance, digital rights management (DRM), online commerce, mobile advertising or other types of services may be able to utilize information related to location, time, intent, identity and other qualities of a user or a user's device in providing their services. For example, compliance and DRM related services may use the information to verify the location of a user, and to understand fidelity of that location in order to meet security requirements or contractual obligations. Likewise, online commerce and advertising related services may use the information to change messaging and content to adapt to user's interests. For example, a mobile advertiser may build a campaign that targets consumers who match specific market segments, or who are located in specific places. The information may also be used to advantage with a wide variety of other types of services. However, information describing location, time, intent, identity, and the like is often unavailable to service providers.
In some cases, a network address, for example, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, associated with a user's device may be available. If such network address (e.g., IP address) could be mapped to entries of a data store that accurately and reliable associated information describing location, time, intent, identity, and the like, to network addresses, then useful information may become available to the service provider. However, forming these sorts of associations in the first place poses a number of problems.
Among other problems, sometimes the information of interest cannot be directly observed. Other times, while the information of interest can be directly observed, it is prohibited from being maintained in a data store due to privacy obligations, or other contractual or regulatory obligations. As such, formation of accurate and reliable associations between a network address and information of interest is prevented. Accordingly, there is a needed for improved techniques.